Many computer programs require interaction with a user to function effectively and/or to be useful. Simple tasks such as displaying text on a display screen require that a user communicate information to the computer about the data to be displayed, when to page forward or backward, etc. Quantitative information can be entered by pressing the numerical keys on the computer keyboard. The more efficiently information can be conveyed to the computer, the more usable and effective the system becomes.
Commercially available graphical user interfaces usually combine a high resolution screen with a pointing device such as a mouse, track ball, or digitizer tablet in addition to the more traditional keyboard. A graphical cursor may be moved around the screen using the pointing device. A typical program will display data along with icons or control buttons on the screen and allow the user to enter information through the keyboard or by positioning a cursor on an icon or control button and then pressing a mouse button or other key to indicate that the system should read the cursor position and execute a function assigned to the icon or control button. A control button might be assigned the page forward function, for example. Icons and control buttons are functionally interchangeable. The term icon normally refers to some type of representational image. An image of a trash can might be used for an icon associated with a discard function. A control button on the screen is normally a representation of a key and would typically be rectangular, elliptical or circular and would be labelled as would keys on a keyboard. Thus, a page down control button might be labelled with the words "page down" or a downward pointing arrow.
The Operating System/2 (OS/2) Presentation Manager, which is a computer program commercially available from the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) uses a graphical interface which allows the user to page forward and backward in a document by positioning the cursor on a vertical control bar at the edge of the screen. The relative position of the page currently being displayed in the document is indicated on the control bar by a small rectangle. Pressing the mouse button (clicking) when the cursor is above the rectangle causes the system to page backwards and clicking on the space below the rectangle causes a page forward function. The user can cause multiple pages to be skipped forward or backward by dragging the rectangle up or down using the mouse.
It is sometimes desirable to know whether a user "likes" or "finds useful" data that is being displayed on a screen. Methods for quantifying such subjective feelings date back at least to the 1930's. One method is to use a Likert scale. The Likert scale was developed in 1932 by psychologist R. Likert to measure people's attitudes about various things. Instead of presenting a dichotomous Yes/No question, the Likert scale allows people to rate their agreement with a question or proposition on a variable scale, typically ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning disagreement, for example. The Likert scale is still widely used in psychological research and testing.
There is a need for efficient methods of allowing computer users to indicate Likert scale and other scalar information to a computer program.